Midnight: a Clois ficlet
by FallenStar90
Summary: Lois has just come back from the date from hell with an abusive man, leaving her an emotional wreck. Who will be there to comfort her?


**Ok, so this is an itsy bitsy ficlet to distract me from my other fic Eris (yes that was a plug). . .**

**This is nothing like Eris, it's a lot darker, which is weird because I'm a happy-go-lucky person, but I'm very bored . Comment, cuz I'm really trying to learn more by writing these stories.**

**Author: FallenStar/Laura**

**Genre: One-Shot Clois**

**Rating: PG-13 to R for sexual themes**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. Blah Blah I own nothing Yada Yada**

**Summary: Read the thing. It ain't that long

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**MIDNIGHT

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Lois Lane was standing in her bathrobe, her hair wet and her tears indistinguishable from the droplets of water that caressed her face after her midnight shower. The moon was bright behind a thin covering of clouds, and the beams that penetrated her bedroom gave her an ethereal presence, her features glowing. From afar, it would seem as though this young woman had no worries or fears, but this was a misrepresentation, for upon closer examination of her face, the lines of stress became clearer, and the miniscule veins that reddened her eyes became the identifying marks of a woman in deep distress.

Her date this night with the man she'd met at the gym went almost as badly as she could have imagined a date could. Sure, he was charming and sweet at first, (and initially seemed to be an improvement from the invisible serial killer who she dated a few weeks before) but her date with Mr. X soon took a turn for the worst when they arrived at his apartment after a night on the town. He invited her upstairs and Lois, whose fierce military training gave her a false sense of security, accepted.

A quiet conversation over coffee soon turned into much more than Lois bargained for when Mr. X decided to make a move on her. His hands began to move up and down the curves of her body, violating the very promise Lois had made to herself after too many broken hearts and regrets. She asked him to stop, but Mr. X had a one track mind, and Lois was far too impressive for him to pass up. She wanted so much to finally be loved, that she allowed him to run his grubby body against hers for two endless hours. When he was finished, Lois began to cry, but was still strong enough to hit Mr. X as hard as she could. She ran from his apartment, her heel breaking and sending her flying down the steps, but she managed to escape the building and run as far away from it as she possibly could, before her aching legs could take no more and she hailed a cab to escort her home.

Now she was stepping towards the window, staring at the stars that she felt had no right to shine so brightly on her. Lois knew she let Mr. X use her, and felt that she was at fault for what had happened to her. She cried silently, now staring at her dim reflection, and wondering why she was doomed to suffer at the hands of men, in a merciless cycle that she predicted would leave her subordinate her entire life. Her visions of the future were bleak: She would marry some jerk with a pearly smile and seductive eyes, and would waste away her years having children and wishing she was dead.

Clark Kent was downstairs sleeping when was awoken by the sounds of heavy droplets slamming on the floor above him. He initially attributed this to a leak, but, upon closer inspection, he realized that the sound of the droplets was due to his super hearing acting up, and that the drops were accompanied by Lois' soft cry and sniffling in her bedroom. He sprinted upstairs, but hesitated at the door when he remembered that Lois had had a date earlier in the evening, and made the assumption that it had not gone well. He debated whether or not to enter, but, sensing that Lois needed a helping hand, cautiously knocked on the door.

Lois heard the knob turn, and hastily grabbed a tissue and tried her best to halt the flow of tears making their way towards her cheeks. "Go away!" she shouted, her voice cracking slightly.

"Lois, it's me, Clark. Are you OK? I was worried about you. You didn't make a sound when you came in."

"Clark, stop being a Boy Scout for once in your life and leave me alone. I'm not in the mood, OK?" Lois cried.

Clark began to walk away, seeing that Lois was not in the mood for company and knowing how hard bad dates could hit a person. But as he retreated downstairs, Lois ran out of her room and called after him. She _did _want company; she needed to talk for a while. "Clark, I'm sorry. You can come back . . . please come back . . ."

Clark heard her and made his way back to Lois' room, and soon found himself looking into Lois' eyes, which lacked their usual playfulness and fire, but instead were glassy and bloodshot. "Lois, what's wrong?" Clark asked, genuinely concerned.

Lois was too afraid to speak, for fear of that little lump in her throat would evolve into full-blown tears. She wanted to be strong, but the desire to spill her guts was so overwhelming that she began her recap of the horrific night.

"He was so sweet . . . _at first _. . . but he had a certain _strangeness _about him. I brushed it off., but then he took me to his apartment, and he . . . _we_ . . ."

Lois was now in tears, her face buried in Clark's chest. Clark didn't need words to know what had happened to Lois earlier that night. He held her in his arms, and wanted nothing more than to tell her the truth about his feelings. He wanted to tell her that he loved her more than life itself, and that he'd protect her for the rest of her life. He wanted to kiss her . . . to kiss her for hours, days, even an eternity. But he realized the state that Lois was in, and knew that his romance was inappropriate now.

So Clark held her in a warm embrace for hours. He held her until her tears stopped, and she fell into a deep slumber. Still he remained, feeling her breath brush past his face, in perfect harmony with the beat of his heart and the sound of songbirds waking to the sliver of sunlight on the horizon. Only when his own lids began to feel heavy did he lay Lois down gently on her bed, tucking her in and kissing her softly on the cheek.

"I love you, Lois," Clark whispered as he shut the door to Lois's bedroom.

Perhaps the souls of these two people were linked by their experiences on this night, the night that had once seemed the blackest that the heaven's had ever produced, but now retreated, as all pain does, and was replaced with a dawn that slowly illuminated the town of Smallville. Still, the inaudible words of Clark Kent reached the ears of Lois, even in her deepest dreams.

"I love you, Clark."


End file.
